[asterisk-users] Analog FXO or IAX DIDS for new facility?

[Paul Hales]

In australia, I would usually suggest a mix of E1 and SIP for calls - it
doesn't cost any money to receive calls via E1, and redundancy is an
old, valuable friend of mine.

PaulH


Stephen Fierbaugh (PBT) wrote:
> I am a Linux sysadmin who has been tasked with developing the phone 
> system for our nonprofit's new US headquarters building.  We cannot 
> bring our legacy phone system with us, so I am building this completely 
> from scratch.  I have already read "Asterisk: The Future of Telephony" 
> and done a fair amount of googling.  I am completely sold on Asterisk, 
> and the new building's phones will be a mix of SIP handsets and softphones.
>
> I am confused about one thing:  Should we be getting a block of analog 
> circuits from the local telco (probably AT&T), connected to the server's 
> FXO cards for in-bound and out-bound POTS calls; or should we get a 
> block of DIDS numbers from one of the plethora of providers available 
> over the Internet, and then have our server connect POTS calls by IAX to 
> the DIDS provider?
>
> We are unsure whether we are going to have separate numbers for everyone 
> in the organization, or just 1 US phone number, with everyone in the org 
> having their own extension number.  That probably largely depends upon cost.
>
> We will have 75 people in the building.  We have no data on call 
> patterns or usage (because our legacy system belongs to our current 
> facilities host), but we currently have 4 lines for 35 people and on 
> unusual occasions they all get busy.
>
> An additional consideration is that we also have 300 other people 
> scattered literally world-wide, and the next logical future step is to 
> start providing VOIP links for them, as well.
>
> Thanks in advance for your advice.  Any other suggestions, such as # of 
> lines sizing info or reputable DIDS vendors (if that's the answer) are 
> also appreciated.
>
>